" Well, Mrs. Schenk quarrelled with her husband about it, and for some days she did nothing but cry until the master had to leave home for a journey, and then she seemed to turn into a perfect devil.
" She called Julia and Ruth into her room, and another slave, an old hag from the kitchen called Dorcas, she made them strip Ruth quite naked, and tie her hands and feet, and then she flogged the poor girl with her slippers and with the cords torn down from the blinds, until she was quite exhausted, and the girl's back was covered with blood; and as it was the girl's fanny that had offended her she made them lay her on her back, and open her legs, whilst she cut her poor cunt all to pieces with the hard knotted whipcord. Oh, her cries were terrible, till her mistress desisted from sheer exhaustion. "
" But that, " said Maud, " must be a mere isolated case, you did not surely see much of such cruelty. "
" О hundreds of instances, more than I can tell you, " replied Laura, " it was quite evident to me, even when very young, that some masters and overseers whipped their female slaves quite as much to gratify their licentious feelings as to punish them for wrong doing. There is no sort of reserve or modesty in the treatment of slaves, the masters will sleep with girls who are really their own daughters of sisters, without hesitation, so as to raise niggers from them, and the slaves u take up with one another, " without any religious ceremony, in fact the master can make and unmake what matches he likes, the law supports him in whatever he chooses to do to raise stock, it is a profitable thing. Mr. Schenk I heard boast had one woman such a good breeder that she bore him twenty thousand dollars worth of niggers.
Oh the licentiousness and cruelty is something awful. Mr. Nokes, whose estate joined Mr. Schenk, was very fond of getting up nude dances amongst his slaves. He would set men and women all dancing together quite naked, and play all sorts of indecent tricks with them, such as thrusting the end of his whip handle into the women's quims, and making the men smell it, and all sorts of similar tricks. I have often seen the women made to frig the men until they spend, and Mr. Nokes laughed heartily at them. One woman refused to join in these games before her sons and daughters, ' Oh,' said her master, " your'e modest, are you, " so he ordered them to put her in the vice; one woman put her knees on the ground and held her head between them, then they drew up her clothes so as to confine her arms, two others stretched her leet out, and,› i held them, and then her whole body, up to her armpits, being bare, Mr. Nokes flogged her dreadfully with a heavy whip, sometimes thrusting the handle of the whip into her cunt, and even into her bottomhole, making her scream with pain, and he then called five or six of the biggest negroes to take the modesty out of her, which they did by fucking her before and behind, whilst she screamed, to the intense delight of the spectators, who all seemed mad with lascivious excitement, for I could see men,women, and even boys and girls, not more than ten or eleven years old, frigging and sucking each others organs of generation."
" But surely," said Flora, " your people didn't know you witnessed such scenes. "
" Not always. " replied Laura. " What I saw at Mr. Nokes' I saw by stealth, but still there is no hesitation in letting young women see the naked ness of slaves any more than there is of animals. Why a young overseer who my father had told to take me out riding, to make me a good horsewoman, never said a rude word to me himself, and was most respectful, still he did not hesitate a moment in exposing the nakedness of both men and women slaves before me. One day we were out riding and crossed a deep gully, at the bottom was a thick cover of brushwood, here we heard a sound for he stopped his horse and called out 'Hallo! what's that, what are you doing here? "
A girl about seventeen was lying full length on the ground, and trying to hide herself in the bushes.
" Hallo,' he said again,"who are you?' "
' Sail, sir, Sam's Sail, sir.'
" What are you doing here? '
She made some reply about hiding from her father, who had threatened her.
'That won't do,' said the overseer, ' you are skulking from your work, go down on your knees.'
The girl knelt down on the ground, he struck her several blows with his raw hide whip, and although I was present he told her to pull up her clothes and lie down.
Without any hesitation, without a word of entreaty, she laid down, and drew all her clothes up under her armpits, exposing, I could not help thinking, a beautifully shaped bottom and thighs. He seized a bunch of twigs, and gave her beautiful ebony bum such a switching, making the poor thing cry and scream as she writhed about in her agony, as the twigs fairly cut into her flesh, and brought the blood. I must own that the sight affected me most deeply, and I felt a tingling sensation about my own bumfiddle, which but for his being engaged as he was he must have observed from my agitation and deep blushes. That scene can never be erased from my memory as long as I live. At length he let her go, and remounting his horse, it was as much as I could do to compose myself under the ardent looks with which he seemed to regard me, in fact I almost wished he would venture upon some sort of freedoms with me, and am sure I should have forgiven him whatever lengths he had gone to.
" I've often heard of women in the family-way being laid on their faces to be flogged, holes having been dug in the ground for their bellies to go in. "
" What disgusting cruelty! " exclaimed Flora, " but you must have seen some really seductive scenes Laura, tell us one of them, don't mention what seems to make one's flesh crawl. "
" Well then, I will tell you about a nigger's camp meeting, you know it is a kind of burlesque revivalist affair, and ought to be deeply religious, but you should see the flirtations, my dears, it is the only chance the handsome and good looking young nigger fellows and lasses may have of seeing each other (if on distant plantations) for months perhaps. When I was stopping with Mrs. Schenk I stay with her old cook Dorcas to one held close eye, in a beautiful wooded dell in Florida. The preacher was a notedly sanctified old nigger called Hilkiah — Ole Hilkiah, I ought to say. Well at first they commenced praying, then singing hymns, which all thoroughly enjoyed, but when Ole Hilkiah, full of the spirit as an Evangelist, had once begun to hold forth, the younger part of his congregation gradually paired off for love making in the shady recesses of the wood, so I got away from Dorcas to see as much of the fun as I could."
" After wandering a short time the sounds of joyous laughter attracted me towards a small glade, and peeping through the bushes, I saw three young couples on the grass, none of them more than fifteen or sixteen years of age. It was a beautifully shaded spot, quite protected by the overhanging foliage from the fierce rays of the afternoon sun, whilst a bubbling rill of deliciously cool water, added to the enjoyability of their retreat.
"You may be sure I watched their proceedings with breathless interest.
" Golly Sue, you had fine leg! " said one good looking boy, pulling up his gal's petticoats, in spite of her pretended resistance.
"' No, nebber, nebber, Sambo! No one shall see dar…"
And if she had not been black perhaps I should have seen her blush, and at the time I really thought her face turned much blacker.
The others laughed, and encouraged him to go on, and take' "dat dam modest sham out of de silly gal; make um all free alike, etc."
"See dar, Miss Sue, look at dem oders,dars Jack and Joe hab got um jocks out, and Suke and Poll all ready. Gorramighty, I'll hab you, see how stiff um is."
She struggled, but he threw her almost flat backwards, and tried to force her legs open, her ebony skin looked deliciously firm and polished, and displayed a lovely development of form.
" She was too strong for him, and fully bore out Queen Elizabeth's maxim,' that no woman can be ravished by a single man against her will."